New CoasterBuzz

Wow. This site is fast. I'm lovin' it.

My Google desktop is missing the RSS feed of current and active forum topics. I see the new RSS for news stories, but nothing for the forum. Is there still one here that I'm not finding, or is that a feed a thing of the past?

For now it's a thing of the past because it wasn't being implemented correctly. Doing so would require a few fundamental changes to the forum itself, which I'm a lot more cautious about because it has wider repercussions on other sites.

I'm not sure if I'm missing it but is the rollback still around? That was a part of the site I really enjoyed

^I just noticed that too; that was a unique feature about CB that I really enjoyed!

At the moment, no, because it was getting hopelessly outdated.

...and because Jeff has a pretty cool idea for how to re-do it into something that will actually stay updated... :)

(Jeff: I haven't really been ignoring you; I just haven't gotten back to you yet... :) )

--Dave Althoff, Jr

I just now checked it out. It's cool. :) I will have to play around with it more later.

-Tina

I've only sent 2 PMs so far on the new site, but I like how the responses are arranged more like a regular conversation, instead of having all messages received kept together and all sent kept together. Now, if replies are sent a day or two apart, it's easier to see what the other person is responding to without clicking back and forth several times.

Jeff, does this mean each PM will have its own "branch"? Or will they all get mixed in chronologically?

PM's are essentially like forum threads, only the newest is at the top. I agree that the back-and-forth as individual entities, or worse, quoted stuff, doesn't make sense. So whichever PM has the most recent post, that will appear as newest, regardless of how old the first post was.

What happened to the active threads on the front page? They disappeared.

The numbers showed few people were using it, and it was creating a duplicate content issue. The SEO theorists also suggest it appeared as keyword spamming, which I definitely don't need since CB is pretty much not even in Google in a meaningful way.

I suggest that if recent topics are your focus, you should bookmark that as your landing page.

Ah well, no biggie. But if forcing me to adapt leads me through some freak of Lamarckian evolution to acquire superpowers that ultimately threaten the very safety of our planet, I'm blaming you . . .

Well poopy. lol

I'll have to get used to it. Is there a chance that maybe people are not even going to the main CoasterBuzz page and instead have the forums bookmarked?

Edit - I juat want to say that now that I have had the chance to get used to the new CB, I think that it rocks hardcore!

LostKause said:
Is there a chance that maybe people are not even going to the main CoasterBuzz page and instead have the forums bookmarked?

Just click the 'recent' link at the top of this page and bookmark it. You'll always be brought to a page showing the recently active threads - including news topics.

From there the icons on the right will show which threads have had activity since your last visit. Just click the icon to be taken to where you last looked at that specific thread.

It's quite efficient, actually.

It should also reduce the ad complaints - one now has to look at less pages than ever and each page seems to serve up less ads.

There really is little to hate around here anymore...once you get used to the change. (that 'change is scary' thing again :) )

Jeff, any chance of a "participated" view of the forum? I can subscribe or add threads to my favorites, but it would be another nice way to view the same content.

If you look at your own profile and click on your own posts, it will bring up threads you've participated in.

I have a 'my posts' link at the top of every forum page (including this one). Bookmark that?

Yeah, either of those get you to the same place.

LostKause said:
Is there a chance that maybe people are not even going to the main CoasterBuzz page and instead have the forums bookmarked?

I have been doing that for years.

I would like to see a feature similar to Digg's "bury" that would remove/tag threads I know I'm never going to be interested in.